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IT'S NOT DIFFICULT TO SECURE AN OLD COURSE TEE TIME AT ST. ANDREWS . . . HERE'S HOW TO DO IT

"You went above and beyond the call of duty"—John Mosley, Kaufman TX
What the Tours Don't Tell You
     

Tour operators/agencies don't work for free. Someone has to pay—and that someone is YOU. While the operators imply that someone else is paying the freight through discounts, that's simply not true. If you have any doubt about that, see my "Analysis of a Tour Offering."

You're kidding! Just Walk on at St. Andrews?

That's right. A single golfer or two golfers have a good chance of getting a tee time at St. Andrews on the spot. Just present yourself to the starter and get in queue. Odds are you'll get a tee time on the Old Course, especially in the late spring and early autumn. If they're full up, you can go to one of the neighboring courses and still have a great St. Andrews experience. Try the Old Course again the next day and/or team up with another single and put your names into the well-known daily ballot by 2 p.m. for play two days later (about fifty percent of all slots are filled by the ballot). You can play the Old Course without booking a year in advance and without buying an overpriced package from a tour operator. That's the kind of valuable information and guidance you'll get when you work with Ferguson Golf. Photo byAllan Ferguson.

  Including eight ways to get on the Old Course at St. Andrews!

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Quality accommodations don't have to cost $100-200+ per person per night. That's the typical dollar range for lodging on the package tours. Believe me, you can stay at a "quality B & B" or an "elegant country house" for less than $100-200 per person per night. I'll direct you to a wide range of choices.

Most tee times do not have to be prepaid. Some major courses require 100% prepayment (e.g., Carnoustie, Muirfield, St. Andrews). But most courses charge a nonrefundable green fee deposit ranging from about £10-30. Nevertheless, agencies want you to prepay everything. But, what happens if you get sick? or have a sore back? or you want to go to a museum? or it's just too wet for your taste? Prepaid scheduling limits your flexibility and locks you into a schedule dictated by someone else—namely the tour operator. Your objective should be to maintain as much flexibility as possible and don't pay for anything until you have to.

Short-notice booking is easy. Foursomes and larger parties are best advised to pre-book (days or months ahead depending upon the course), BUT on many fine Scottish courses on weekdays a golf party from one to four can play with little or no advance booking. Many times you can even "walk on"—yes, even during the "high season" and EVEN as a single golfer at the Old Course in St. Andrews. Remember, Scotland and Ireland (each about the size of Maine) have hundreds of golf courses. There's good golf around virtually every corner.

Securing a Tee Time at St. Andrews' Old Course

First, the least expensive methods - You will pay only the current fee or green fees (with an Old Course time, St. Andrews requires play on one of their other 18-hole courses. The usual choice is either the New or Jubilee. Costs - 2012 New/Jubilee £70, Castle Course £120, Old Course £150).

1  The best way to get a tee time at St. Andrews is through the advance reservation process. Links Management deals directly with a lead golfer. A tour operator or travel agent cannot do this for you.

The advance reservation process opens at St. Andrews on the first Wednesday in September (September 4 in 2012) at 10 a.m. GMT (Greenwhich Mean Time). That's 5 a.m. on the east coast of the USA, 4 a.m. central, 3 a.m. mountain, 2 a.m. Pacific. To reserve a time you must have (a) a lead golfer; (b) preferred dates of play; (c) names of other golfers; (d) handicap indices; (e) club affiliations (where the indices are kept). Instructions and application forms are available at www.standrews.org.uk   No, you cannot send your application in before 10 a.m. GMT. Yes, it is a good idea to indicate availability for a range of dates in addition to a preferred date for the Old Course.

You will be notified by the end of October regarding your success or failure in the advance reservation process. If you are successful you can get on with booking the rest of your trip. If you are unsuccessful, go to "Plan B."

2 "Plan B" - Reapply for an advance reservation on the first or second Wednesday in January. When advance reservations are not prepaid by a certain date (the end of November), those times are released for a second round of applications. No waitlist is kept. Monitor the St. Andrews website for further instruction as this date approaches. If that doesn't work, go to "Plan C".

3  "Plan C" - Schedule a St. Andrews stay in your itinerary and enter the daily ballot. About fifty percent of all Old Course times are distributed through the daily ballot (now two days prior to date of play). Normally, even in high season, if you give the ballot two or three days to work, it would be highly unusual if you did not get an Old Course time. Based on my years of experience, the success rate is 95% or 9:1 in all months except August. This is the least expensive way to get a tee time because no second course is involved.

4  Check in with the Starter when you are in St. Andrews. Whether in the early morning queue or later in the day, you may be able to play as a "walk-on." Due to weather or for other reasons, St. Andrews often has open slots. Obviously, this will work best for singles or duos.

Now for the expensive options . . .  Any time secured through a third party (i.e., a tour operator, lodging, or The Old Course Experience - OCE) will be significantly more expensive.

1  During September or October, while waiting for word from St. Andrews, call a tour operator and tell them you want to buy a "trade time" through them. These are distributed by The Old Course Experience with the same requirements and on the same schedule as the Links Management times. Hard to say how much this will cost. The Old Course Experience sells to the operator at a profit. The operator will tack on more margin. If you are successful with both the Links Management and The OCE, you don't have to take the OCE time. You can ask for a trade time any time, but they go fast - not much chance after January. This is the main source of all those "guaranteed tee times" advertised by the tour operators. The times are date-specific—that is, they are "guaranteed," but they are only available to you if you can travel when the seller wants you to travel.

2  Certain hotels, guest houses, and B & Bs are allocated some tee times. You can call around, but as a practical matter, these are virtually all sold on to major tour operators who, in turn, package them up with minimum stays, dinners, and other requirements—all at a premium price, of course. This is the other main source of all those "guaranteed tee times."

3  For those who positively, absolutely must have an Old Course tee time and either can't or won't work through the six methods above, you can buy a time directly from The Old Course Experience. See www.oldcourse-experience.com for more information. This program comes with hotel-specific requirements (all super expensive) and an Old Course tee time that works out, more or less, to about about $1,900. I shall say no more—except that P.T. Barnum would have loved the guys who thought up The Old Course Experience.

 

 

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